The University of Alaska Southeast has received a grant to train school administrators at local school districts.
A $100,000 grant from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development will pay for student tuition in the new training program.
Bryan Zadalis, a spokesperson for DEED, said the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development gave DEED money from a federal grant to pilot an educator apprenticeship program. Part of that money went toward the $100,000 grant to UAS.
UAS Dean of Education Carlee Simon said the Principal Apprenticeship Program will work with districts around the state to train future administrators while they’re working in schools.
“We’re hearing a lot of feedback through the superintendents that they have a strong teacher who really needs to serve in a leadership role, and they need to have kind of this on the job training because they don’t have the time or the ability to totally step away from their leadership, or their teaching experience,” she said.
This comes as Alaskan school districts struggle to retain teachers and principals. Data from Regional Educational Lab Northwest, an education research lab that looks into evidence-based methods to improve learning outcomes in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, shows that principals had an 18% turnover rate in Alaska in 2021.
According to a University of Alaska report to the state Legislature, from 2012 to 2021, teacher turnover rates statewide consistently surpassed the national average.
The grant will cover the cost of tuition for students. Simon said it’s a step in keeping both good teachers and administrators in school districts.
“We know that retention of strong teachers is linked to strong leaders, and so we’re excited about being able to make sure that we have strong leaders that aren’t going to have student loan debt that will be in our school systems, because we know that they’re needed,” she said.
Simon said the University of Alaska Anchorage is also developing an apprenticeship program for principals. But she said it will be structured differently to reach a different population of aspiring administrators.
UAA and the University of Alaska Fairbanks are also running an apprenticeship program for teachers. Simon said the Southeast campus will develop its own teacher apprenticeship programs as well.
The UAS principal training program is expected to begin next fall with a cohort of 10 students.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated questions given to DEED. The story was updated to add additional information from DEED about the source of grant funding.
